Arya Dröttning

How Many Deer Does It Take To Feed A Dragon?

Arya woke up. It was dawn and Fírnen was curled in her lap, still sleeping. She needed a place to raise her dragon, but where? Then she remembered how Eragon's mentors had lived on the Crags of Tel'naeír in their little hut in Ellesmera. So she decided that she would raise her dragon there. She lifted Fírnen off her lap and carried him and his little nest to the Crags of Tel'naeír and set him down in the nest, and she placed the nest on the ground. All of a sudden, she heard a little rumble and realized she needed to go get food for the young dragon to eat. She spotted a few deer in the area. Arya gathered her energy and whispered Deyja or "die" in the ancient language killing one of the deer. She did not like having to kill animals, but her dragon would need meat to survive, not the vegetation she ate on a daily basis. She ran to the deer and lugged it over to Fírnen, first whispering "kverst" (cut) to cut the deer meat into strips so that Fírnen wouldn't choke. After Fírnen ate the deer she heard a little rumble yet again. So, she repeated the process. She did this twice more and finally Fírnen was satisfied. It took her four deer to feed Fírnen. She hoped he wouldn't be hungry for at least another two days otherwise, Ellesmera would run out of deer. She got up and took some water from the creek a few feet away and filled a little bowl she had found in Oromis's hut with water for Fírnen and placed it in front of him. Just then she saw a group of elves striding towards her. She looked at Fírnen and wondered what this disturbance was about. Could it have to do with her dragon? Or was it something more? Did it have to do with her mother, Queen Islanzadí's death, the eggs that Eragon and Saphira had discovered in the Vault of Souls, or the Eldunarí found in the same place? Whatever the case may be, she hoped it was not more bad news.